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Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Bugs and Crawling Things - Ladybug

We started our May lessons a few days behind. It was actually a Saturday morning. Jeff was working at a side job to help make ends meet while I was taking maternity time off. It was just me and the boys that day. We had watched a few morning cartoons and I didn't want the TV on but wanted something fun to do.

So we got started on Day 1, Ladybugs. It was just Peter and I at first, Lachlan was sleeping way in. As Peter ate his Cheerios, he got started on making his Ladybug Headband. I showed him how to draw a little circle and then color that in to make dots. He didn't follow those instructions perfectly, but that's okay.

When Lachlan finally woke up, I had him start on a project I had cut out of the Explore the Pond. More Math workbook. It had 4 different sizes of mayflies to cut out and measure. As he ate, he cut out the pictures. When he was done I had him come back and measure the mayflies. I showed him how to line them up from nose to tail and look at the number on the ruler to see how long they were. Then I used his little science journal to write down the numbers on. At the end I asked him which was the longest (biggest) and which was the shortest (smallest). He was easily able to point them out to me, but I made sure to point out the numbers, which I had also written on the pictures. That way he could tell that the longest had the biggest number and the shortest had the smallest number.

Later that day, I got Lachlan back at the counter to make his Ladybug Headband. I taught him the same way to make a dot. Make a small circle and then color it in. He giggled his happy giggle and got right to work.

In the evening on this day they wrote their names on their new name tags. Lachlan is getting so good.

For Mathematics and Reasoning on Day 1, we were supposed to teach them the box step. I thought this was brilliant as we were learning all about rectangles. I taped the shape cube together and put the rectangle piece inside. I asked the boys what they thought might be inside the cube and they both exclaimed "rectangle". I handed them the shape of the month to put up on the poster and they ran over together.

After doing all this we were to reiterate the shape by having them Step and Slide in a rectangles shape, the box step. I logged this idea away in my brain because we didn't have the time to do it right then. So a few days later, as we were talking about rectangles again on Day 2, I taught them the special dance.

To make it easier for them to visualize I taped a rectangle on the ground for them to dance around. This picture is of Lachlan, defending his rectangle from Peter.